Thoughts After Class - Week 5

DH Presentations

Greg, Interactive Visual Bibliography: Describing Corpora

·      Super cool project.

·      This seems like it could be helpful when looking for connections between authors and certain topics. The visual mapping shows connections that might not otherwise be so easily identifiable.

·      I bet there are some interesting connections that you probably wouldn’t even expect that show up if you poke around enough.

·      I, too, could probably easily get sucked into a rabbit hole in this site.

Jennifer, Electronic Beowulf

·      The printed pages right next to the typed-out text is interesting.

·      Seems like you could make a whole lesson plan for Beowulf from just these resources and the other resources it connects you to.

Final Project

I really want to work with this idea of maps and how certain people/events/locations intersect in (sometimes) surprising ways. As I stated in my previous post, I’m planning on doing something with Steinbeck. In reading his non-fiction and biographical works it quickly becomes apparent that he had a lot of connections with figures in Hollywood, politics, and other important historical events of the twentieth century. I’ve only been able to find a few digital projects related to Steinbeck, and the ones that I have found seems to be a little narrower than what I thinking about and looking for.  

I ABSOLUTELY love the idea jumps that Jennifer makes from Beowulf to dragon literature! I want more of that! LoL! That sounds so very interesting!

Donald Duck

I’m definitely going to have to go back and watch again. I was too focused on watching the cartoon itself and I didn’t even notice all the other information being provided in the other boxes on the page.

Rhetorical Precis

Brian - “A Brief Note on Moretti and Science Fiction”: I think there is a lot of value in the ideas that Moretti suggests. However, I also think SF is a good example of the exception to the rule. Just as in many cases, the “rule” may apply most of the time, but there are always exceptions.

Jennifer – “Judging Books by Their Covers”: I think that for many authors luck is a factor in their success. I guess luck could be defined in a few different ways. For some authors it just so happened that they were writing the right thing at the right time. For others, they just happened to get picked up by the right person (Oprah?). But, I also agree that this is not the case for everyone.

Moretti and Graph Maps and Trees

I like the idea that Moretti is giving “permission” rather than “rules” to think in these ways. I tend to be a visual person, so anytime I can put a clear visual picture together I feel like I get a better understanding of the text. In reading his “Maps” section, I never got the impression that he was suggesting that the only correct way to use maps is the way he suggests. But, I think he opens up and introduces a new way of using maps to analyze literary texts. The more I think about Moretti and his ideas about maps, the more I think of specific books that I have read that I would like to go back to and map as I re-read.